The C-Spot: A Photography, Travel and Culture Journal

*Dedicated to my high school batchmates who have gone ahead to prepare for our ultimate reunion.* I've long been intending to write something about my high school classmates. I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks to them for some of the best moments of my life. I wanted to tell them how grateful I am for the gift of friendship they have given me, and how unbeknown to them they have contributed to the person I now am. For most of them, I can do that anytime I want to. I can do that whenever I meet with them in small unplanned reunions, in big organized school homecomings and yes, during coordinated and deliberate projects such as medical missions and the like. After all, they are just a phone call, an email, or a text message away. After all, they are still with me in the world of the living. But there are those who have gone ahead to the final homecoming. Some in the prime of their youth, others in the peak of their adulthood. They are those I wish to give tribute to...

Rating: ★★★★★ Category: Books Genre: Nonfiction Author: F. William Engdahl In Abraham Maslow's classic work on human psychology, The Theory of Human Motivation, he argues that in man's hierarchy of needs, food is the foremost of all human needs and must therefore be first to be satisfied. As such, it, too, is the most basic of all motivations without which all other needs are irrelevant including life itself. So when you learn that there's a careful, deliberate and strategic plan to control food supply by a group of elite individuals with the resources, the technology and the brain trust of the most brilliant individuals to actually draw-up and execute such a plan with the ultimate goal of world domination, how do you react? You'll probably think that that is not possible and may only happen in the world of Hollywood. But author and researcher F. William Engdahl says that indeed this is not just a possibility but already a reality. And as a matter of fact, it is not jus...

In 1939 Europe rumors of war was flying thick and fast. And Adolf Hitler was planning to invade Poland. But thousands of miles away, in that little known place on earth called the Far East, in a country named after a European King, war was farthest from the people's mind. Romance was in the air as the romantic pairing of two screen giants, Fernando Poe, Sr. and Mila del Sol, was being shown in the silver screen in a movie titled "Giliw Ko" in the Philippine capital city of Manila. At about the same time, a similar romantic fever was spreading wildly in the US with the release of what would prove to be one of the greatest movies of all time - "Gone With The Wind." And in a small rural town of Libmanan, in the diocese of Camarines Sur, a cute and adorable boy was born to simple folks, the couple Conching and Pabling. Their first born. Some people say that the first born is a product of pure love. Soon to be named Edgardo Salvador, this little darling was indeed ...

This is an image of typhoon tracks from 1980 to 2005 or a period of 25 years (photo from wikimedia). NOTE: Please click on the image to view large format (available only for 30 days and counting...) . If you are familiar with the southeast asian geography, you probably know that right in the densest part of the storm tracks is where the Philippine archipelago is (indistinguishable and literally obliterated from view due to the blue lines that mark the tracts of possibly hundreds of typhoons during the two and a half decade time-frame). And if you're familiar as well with Philippine geography, you'll probably know that right smack in the middle of that storm corridor is the Bicol Region and as such, it is probably the most typhoon-battered/ravaged region in the entire Philippine archipelago. So to me, a Bicolano, personal sa akin ang bagyo. But I don't mean it in a negative way. It's just that typhoons have been a part of many of the events and moments in my life, both...

Above is a photo of Pablo Irigo's class in the mining town of Paracale,  Camarines Norte, his first teaching assignment. (Pablo is that stern-looking and very serious guy seated in middle). ***There were many things I wanted to say about my father, inspite of the fact that he lived a very short life of 58 years. Shorter still was the time he and I spent with each other since after highschool, I was off to Manila for college. Save for a few instances during the summer and semestral breaks I really didn't interact much with him, concerned more as I was with my own self-indulgent habits with myself and my barkada. Yet, there's a lot to say about him. Not because I can talk a lot per sé but because there's really a  lot to tell about him, his work, his bike, his violin, his patience, his calm disposition, how he is as a father, etc. And certainly one blog would not be enough to tell all the stories. So what f...

( Please click on the image to enlarge ) Above is a tabulation of some statistics I thought would provide some additional information and put some perspective on the current rice "crisis" of sorts that our country is experiencing. These data were either based on 2006 or 2007 reports of the two cited sources. As can be gleaned, it shows that the Philippines lag behind Thailand and Vietnam in terms of riceland, irrigated rice area and over-all arable land. But it is the highest in terms of population and population growth rate. It is interesting to note that in terms of yield per hectare or volume of rice produced per hectare, the Philippines perform better than Thailand (clearly debunking the myth that Thailand produces more even if they just learned rice production from us). (NOTE: These data do not exist in a vacuum. They may be directly influenced by other socio-political factors such as policy or implementation issues, that are not readily apparent in th...

Before anything else, let me first disabuse the readers' mind of a possible mis-reading of this blog that may be caused by it's title. This is NOT AN EXPOSÉ of shenanigans in the rice industry, nor is this designed to blow the whistle on any corrupt person or persons. This is just a simple re-telling some of the stories told among those who are or had been in the industry for sometime, in their capacity as either part of the government, or the private trade sector, as farmers or consumers, or as plain observers of the industry. Ever since I was employed in the government, specifically the National Food Authority (and that is some 30 + years ago), allegations of corruption have always been made against the NFA, its employees, officials, and even against some private sector partners, e.g. rice millers, wholesalers and retailers. The sources of these allegations vary; from the farmers, the consumers, the grains retailers, and even NFA's own personnel. Ma...

On the demand side: Statistically, the Filipinos consume about 32,000 metric tons per day. Annually, therefore, the Philippines' rice requirement is 11.68 million metric tons (derived by multiplying 32,000 metric tons by 365 days). On the supply side: According to published reports, Philippine rice production is about 15.33 million metric tons in 2006 and 16.24 million metric tons for 2007. Analysis: If we produce about 15 to 16 million metric tons and we require some 11 and a half million metrics tons, then we have what is called a production surplus of about 5 million metric tons (16-11=5). Conclusion: There is no need to import rice. Well...not quite. As I've indicated in one of my earlier posts, the rice issue is a little bit more complicated. Other Issues: - Post-harvest losses The estimated rough rice or palay to be harvested goes through a series of what is called post-harvest processing, such as the harvesting itself, threshing (a process of separatin...

Though this blog would seem to focus on the element of population as a factor affecting the rice issue, I think I'll try to widen the scope by covering the issue of Demand, in general. It has often been said that the rice issue, or more particularly the failure or success in making and implementing policies on it, could spell the fate of any administration.* This is so because the Philippine population (at least about 85% of it, because some 15% are corn eaters), are rice consumers. Rice is the main component of any filipino meal. Everybody knows about how a Pinoy travelling abroad would go out of his way to look for a chinese or Asian restaurant if only to able to eat rice. Sometimes, its said that some Pinoys feel a little weak after going for days without rice in his meals. So more filipinos means bigger demand for rice. According to some reports I've read,  the Philippine population rate of increase is very high, if not the highest, at least in the Asian region. I hea...

Given the"controversy" in rice that is apparently enveloping our controversy-hungry nation, I feel there's a need for me, an employee of the agency at the center of all these (the NFA), to at least try and help others "sort-out'' the issues for better appreciation. I am not doing this to make any excuses or lay blame to anyone or that sort of thing. But if I come through like I'm trying to justify things, then that's the readers' call. The issue of rice is indeed a complicated one and not so easy to explain but for the sake of brevity, I'll use "bullet-points" approach to clarify certain things which I think are not clear to most and somehow become or are used as basis for baseless conclusions or misunderstanding of the rice issue. - Issue: Thailand sent their students to study agriculture and learn rice production technology here in the Philippines in the 60s and 70s, and just learned from us, so to speak, so how come they are...

Rating: ★★★★ Category: Movies Genre: Drama “There’s a way to be good again.” This is the promo-blurb one sees on the movie posters promoting the movie, “The Kite Runner.” I first saw it as a movie trailer when I went to watch “Bucket List.” The movie is a cinematographic presentation of a 2003 bestseller novel of the same title by an Afghan-American, Khaled Hosseini, a physician by training and profession. It tells the story of an extraordinary bond between two men, who in their innocent, happy and youthful years were kite fighters and kite runners. Kite runners refer to those who retrieve kites downed in a kite fight. As I am often wont to, it’s not the story that usually catches my interest. Most of the time, it is something quite trivial or a seemingly small detail that gets my attention, such as a colorful poster, a picture of the actors, etc. Presently, it is the term “kite runner” that has attracted my curiosity. But in the meantime, please allow me to digress a bit from the movi...

Rating: ★★★★ Category: Books Genre: Literature & Fiction Author: Zara A. Irigo Under the traditional or conventional mode, "Five Days in Palawan" is categorized under Literature & Fiction. But in today's hip world dominated by themes of strong women personalities, as typified in the long-running and award-winning TV series Ally MacBeal, book classifications have somehow given way to other classifications, if only to truly reflect contemporary realities. Thus, the book is categorized as "Chick Lit." And as a new, non-conventional genre, "Chick Lit" description can only be found in such avant garde source as Wikipedia which defines it as a genre of fiction written for and marketed to young women, especially single, working women in their twenties and thirties, which features an airy, sometimes irreverent tone, and themes of frank sexuality*. This "in-your-face-type" of aggressive female behavior is immediately apparent in the very fir...

http://psicompublishing.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=340 Sa aking mga kaibigan dito sa Multiply.com, I would just like to "announce" that Zara Irigo's short story on Palawan has been published. You can visit the link for details. To those I have previously informed about it (and who may have already read it), this is the published version which is now entitled, "Five Days in Palawan." I hope you can support this budding young writer. Please click on the link and see how you can order on-line. Thanks.